Beginning My "Jesus" Year

So yesterday was my 33rd birthday (thanks Mommy! I appreciate you popping me out SOOO much more now that I've done it myself a couple of times!). Some people call your 33rd year on Earth your "Jesus" year since that's when his Earthly ministry ended. Not all of the important stuff happened that year, but a whole lot of it did. We'll have to see what it brings me. (Oh, and happy 5th birthday, free Iraq!)

Leading up to my birthday, God gave me His present - a new, fabulous job! I'm working at Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Lab. I'm working with some former co-workers and customers (a.k.a. "old friends") doing stuff that I enjoy doing! They have a new laptop for me and _TWO_ ginormous screens (and a docking station) for when I'm in the office. Right now, that's daily mostly in the afternoons. In a couple of weeks, I'll start working most days from home. The main reason that I haven't posted about this (or anything else) since I started two weeks ago is that they became aware of a cyber attack the day before I started and today's the first day that they've restored complete internet access to us. They're paying me (way) more, they're a (way) better organization overall, they value me as an employee (way) more, they've bent over backwards to do everything possible to make working for them as convenient for me as they can. And did I mention that I'm working with friends doing stuff that I love? :) It's _GREAT_!

It's been hard being away from the kids even though it was just the afternoons, but we've got a friend watching them for us and they're really enjoying her. Plus I'm really only missing lunch, naps, and the post-nap whiny period. For the most part, I'm ok with that. :) It _has_ been difficult trying to keep the house "company" ready-ish and getting stuff like grocery shopping done while still pumping enough to meet Joanna's needs while I'm away, picking up our friend (who is currently car-less), and getting to work "on time" (which is really just a requirement I set for myself - no one here cares when I get here). But we're making it work!

Joanna was 6 months old last Tuesday, so we started with the solid foods. She's not the fan of carrots that her big brother used to be. Didn't mind the peaches so much, but just isn't as into eating solids as AJ was at 4 months! It's still amazing to me how different they can be!

Hopefully she'll do alright with them though because the next two weekends we'll be apart for significant periods of time and I'm not sure I'll be able to pump enough. My folks are sending me and VNB to a little B&B on St. Michaels this Friday night (with babysitting included since my mom's flying up Friday morning and staying through Monday morning). Then the following weekend, we're taking our first family-of-four camping trip with a big group of friends. The group is leaving Friday night, but I've got a meeting till late, so I'll be away from her a good bit of the evening, then most of us (myself included!) are going white water rafting on Saturday. So I'll spend this week and next downing my "Mother's Milk" tea and eating oatmeal cookies to boost my production as much as possible.

But speaking of which, I need to go pump. So things are good! I just haven't had time in the mornings to post anything.

Life on Planet Mom

So I was sent the book "Life on Planet Mom: a down-to-earth guide to your changing relationships" by the MOPS people to review and tell everyone about. It's written by Lisa T. Bergren and is the theme book for the 2009-2010 MOPS year. The main point of the theme ("Together on planet Mom") for the year is that when you have your first baby (either through birth or through adoption), all of your relationships change as a result. Some of them change for the better, some for the worse, and some just disappear.

The book focuses on six different relationships that are vital to a mom: your relationship with yourself, your spouse, your family, your friends, the world, and God. In each chapter, Ms. Bergren gives understanding and encouragement for a mom as she navigates each of these relationships and how they change when kids enter into the picture. She also gives practical advice on how to maintain or even improve each relationship.

Scattered throughout the book are responses to an online survey that MOPS moms were invited to take. I can't tell you how surprised I was when I read one quote that sounded vaguely familiar only to have it attributed to "Leia!" Yep, I'm quoted in the book! Pg. 138, if you're curious! I only barely remember the survey, but how cool is that? :)

My favorite chapter was the one on how your relationship with the world changes when you become a mom. It's very important to me that my children get exposed to many different opportunities to help various people both locally and around the world. Finding toddler-friendly service opportunities may be difficult, but it's slowly becoming a passion of mine. At the very least, it was good to be encouraged that sometimes even if the kids can't come, it's good for them to see their parents serving in various ways.

Coming from mostly a fiction background, Ms. Bergren begins each chapter with a short snippet of the lives of four friends who are in various life stages and situations. Without being too hokey, the various situations give excellent examples of ways that relationships change with kids, but how important it is to work to maintain important relationships in our lives.

All in all, I liked this book (really there _are_ books out there that I don't like, MOPS just seems to be sending me books that are well-written, interesting, and pertinent to me - I promise I'd let you know if they were bad or poorly-written). I'm really looking forward to this new MOPS year and am excited to get to share what I already know about the theme with the rest of our steering team!

Thanks to MOPS for including me in their "Blog Book Tour!" I can't wait to see what they send next! :)

Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head

So VNB's been doing this weight loss challenge through work and after depriving himself for most of a month and reaching his target weight (but still losing the challenge since someone else lost a greater percentage of weight), he was really craving a Frosty. Wanting to maintain his renewed slimness, he wasn't going to indulge until I mentioned that it wouldn't be so bad as long as we walked over to get it (Wendy's is about a mile away along wooded paths - yay, Columbia!). So we pulled out the stroller, strapped Joanna in, packed an umbrella since it was supposed to storm, and went on our merry way. AJ had a great time running (his favorite thing ever), we all got exercise, and it was a lovely walk. We decided on Chik-fil-a rather than Wendy's when we got there, then decided to check to see if Walmart had something we were looking for (same shopping center). Well, after our Walmart stop, we headed back outside only to be met by the very first drops of rain. By the time we reconfigured outfits and the stroller and dug out the umbrella, it was pouring, as it continued to do most of the night.

AJ (who was riding since we were in a maze of parking lots and roads) immediately started screaming like every drop of rain burned his skin or he was melting or something. So we put AJ in the back, piled the baby on top of him, I held the umbrella over me and VNB, and VNB pushed the stroller. We made it most of the way home (although VNB ended up taking the umbrella back since he was better able to protect the littles than I was) with only the occasional screams from AJ about his "piggies" getting wet (seriously, you'd think the kid was made out of sugar or something for all of his screams about getting wet). After a while, he was done with holding Baby, so I ended up carrying the baby the last little bit while AJ cowered in the stroller and VNB pushed.

Fortunately, it was a warm night and a warm rain...and our laziness after a recent zoo trip meant that AJ and Joanna had jackets in the stroller. Even so, we were all sopping wet when we got home.

It was a fun adventure though, and one that VNB and I, at least, enjoyed. Joanna liked it too, once I was carrying her. AJ's the only one who will probably be scarred for life (although it didn't seem to make him want to hurry at all _today_ as we were running through parking lots to avoid getting wet - no, _today_ rain was tons of fun). Still, remind me never to walk for Frosties on a whim again. At least not without serious rain gear.

Jesus Is My Friend!

I'm not really sure what disturbs me more. This video by itself or the fact that AJ wandered by while I was watching it, saw a close-up of the lady on the left with the glasses, and said, "MAMA!!" like he thought she was me.

Creepy Crawly

So last night at small group, VNB was telling our group that she'd be crawling within the month. Apparently Joanna took that as a challenge.

She's already managed to crawl to one of her brother's drawings, grab it, chew it up, and get yelled at by an outraged big brother. Today, the belly crawl. Tomorrow, the world!

Turning, Turning, Turning Through the Years...

This happened the night before Easter. She's wearing the Tigger outfit because I was meeting the family at a restaurant for dinner after Amplified that night and when Daddy asked AJ what the baby should wear, this was what he picked. AJ was also wearing his Tigger hoodie. Apparently Tigger's _not_ the only one.

Anyway, so when we got home, she was playing on her little play mat. On her back. A few minutes later, this video was taken.

Now she's a little roly-poly. You put her down on her back, look away for 2 seconds, look back and she's halfway across the room, having cleared multiple obstacles to get there. But it only happens when you're not looking. You look away again and she's on the other side of the room, AJ's latest drawing is scraps of pulp, and her face, hands, and clothes are smeared with "safe, non-toxic" "washable" markers. Look away again and you find her under the dining room table, ticked off because she can't get the whole table leg into her mouth.

AJ enjoys sitting on the quilt under her play mat as she lies there, batting at toys and trying desperately to fit a beach ball in her mouth. Then, when she touches him, he screams like a banshee, and tells her "No no, Baby! No touch AJ." He doesn't seem to get that he's in _her_ space. I think he just sees it as an opportunity to boss someone around like he's bossed around so frequently. He similarly likes telling the cat "no no" for non-crimes like walking across the room.

Anyway, the video's not so exciting, but it is actual footage of her actual first successful complete roll from back to belly. Or at least the wiggling on the belly part post-roll.

Making Work at Home Work

So y'all have heard me talk about MOPS before. It's a great group for moms of preschoolers. We started a local chapter at my church in January of '08 and have been enjoying it ever since. Well, a few months back I took a survey for something or other for MOPS and at the end it asked if I had a blog and, if so, would I be interested in reviewing books for them on it. Let's see...asking Leia if she wants free books? Hrm...what will she say? Um...."Heck, yeah!"

So fast forward a few months, and I get an email asking me if I'm interested in reviewing a book called "Making Work at Home Work: Successfully Growing a Business and a Family Under One Roof" by Mary M. Byers. Let's see again...free book...about working from home...being offered to Leia about the time that she's seriously considering starting her own engineering firm (from home) in order to actually get paid for something? Again, "heck, yeah!"

So fast forward again a few weeks and I get a book in the mail which I think I started reading that night. It's broken down into two sections: "Saving Your Sanity" and "Preserving Your Profit." In the first section she gives practical tips on keeping the balance between work and home. She even includes some recipes for quick and easy (but relatively healthy) dinners! In the second section, she focuses more on the business aspect, dealing with taxes, investing in your business, retirement advice, and things of a similar nature. Each chapter is pretty short (nice for a mom with littles who don't appreciate long afternoons of reading) and she punctuates them with interviews of real (and successful) work-at-home moms.

I really liked how practical this book was (both sections of it). In the sanity section, she helps step you through all of the common headaches of working at home - guilt, working more than is necessary, dealing with clients, figuring out (or remembering) your motivation, and how to deal with child care (among others). One of my most favorite aspects of this book is that she doesn't tell you (like so many do) that you have to wear something other than PJs in order to work. I don't know why that's such a sticking point with people, but I've heard over and over from work-at-home people about how people always assume that they work in their PJs, but the reality of it was that they got dressed and "went to work" like everyone else - their office was just closer. Well, I'm going to confess to you that I work from home and I do it in my PJs whenever possible. That's partly from a pragmatic standpoint though - the fewer clothes I wear, the fewer clothes I have to wash, the less laundry I have to do. See...it's really my great efficiency that causes me to laze about in my jammies all day.

I also liked that she didn't tell me (like so many do) how I _have_ to have childcare during my work times if I'm going to get any real work accomplished. I'm sure that there are people who can't produce quality work when their kids are around (and I'm sure that it depends greatly on the type of work you do). I know that I have my days of that myself...but if I'm going to send my kids to day care so that I can work from home, to me, I'm defeating the purpose of me being home in the first place. And our place is so small that even if I hired someone to watch them while I worked, we'd all be in the same room, so I'd have all of the same distractions anyway.

This book gave a great balance of practical tips alongside a healthy dose of "do what works for you, just make sure that it's actually _working_."

The second section was great for someone like me who just doesn't have much of a "business" mind. I can do what I do very well...but ask me to sell you something and you might as well be asking me to stop by Mars on my way home from the grocery store today. Or ask me to sit down and figure out the specifics of a budget and most of the time I'd pretty much rather poke my eyes out with something dull. I may still do it anyway, but that's how I feel about it. The "Protecting your Profit" section kept the information at just the right level for someone like me. It was clear, without the details that make me want to poke myself with something hot, but with enough information that it will actually be useful, should I ever decide to start that engineering firm.

Ever since I read it, I've been trying to think of something that I could say that I _didn't_ like about it. All I can think of is a story she tells at the beginning. The details aren't important so much as the fact that I think she was being too hard on herself. But really, that's it. I can't think of anything else I would have put in or anything I'd have taken out. It was short and to the point - both excellent things when you're dealing with little ones running around. It was informative without getting too detailed. It was practical without ordering people to do things in one specific way.

So anyway, "Making Work at Home Work" by Mary M. Byers. Apparently it'll be available June 9th (or so). I would assume that Amazon will have it, but I know that Christianbook.com does. They're even selling it for less than the cover price. And if you use this link, I think MOPS gets some of the money.

Next up for MOPS book reviews: the 2009-2010 MOPS theme book!

Big Shoes

Enough

So on Saturday, I got pretty much the whole day without my darling kiddoes. It was both blissful and painful all at the same time. Blissful because I got to be an adult all day without anyone hanging off of me while attending a great training for MOPS leaders and then Amplified. And painful because not only was I without my darling, wonderful husband (who was watching our children all day, despite being called into work at the last minute) and my adorable little ones, I was also without some of the necessary pieces of my breast pump. By the end of the day, we'll just say that I was...full...

Anyhoo...it was a beautiful day, so I got to drive with the windows down, singing along with the radio (or at times with the radio off and just in silence!!!). And it was freeing! It's so rare that I'm actually _alone_ in a car anymore. That used to be my time to sit and chat with God, and I have to say that it's one of the things I've missed most since being a mommy. Well, that's how I used to think of it anyway. But since I had probably two hours of "alone time" while driving to and fro on Saturday, I think I have come to a startling realization.

I am seriously lacking in angst in my life right now. That's totally not a bad thing to lack and I certainly don't miss it, but it gives me far less to "chat" with God about in those rare moments when we _are_ alone. Looking back, I think our "chats" used to revolve a lot around the "things" I wanted in life (pretty much just a husband and kids, back in the day), and now that I have those "things," I don't know what to talk about.

Makes me wonder exactly how self-centered my relationship with Him was in those days, constantly asking Him why I wasn't getting the things I wanted at the times that I wanted them. Heh...reminds me of a certain young man I popped out a few years back who is still learning the concept of "yes, but later."

Wow...this is totally not the blog post I expected it to be. How do I expect my 2-yr-old to understand a concept that I didn't get when I was 27? And still probably wouldn't get if there were anything I wanted RIGHT NOW. I wonder how many times _I_ got put into "time out" and had those "things" taken away because _I_ wouldn't stop pouting? Now there's a point to ponder...

Anyway...I've noticed a lot of other bloggers lately talking about the concept of "Enough." C.S. Lewis touches on it in "Perelandra" (the 2nd book in his "Space Trilogy") when Ransom eats the special fruit. He recognizes that the ample crop would allow him to eat as many of the fruits as he wanted to...but something holds him back after the first one or two. By indulging (or over-indulging), he would be taking away some of the "special-ness" of the fruit. And by waiting in between each taste of the fruit, he got to savor the memory of the last special meal and eagerly anticipate the next.

What I have now is "enough" and then some. Yes, we could stand to have more money, but we have enough for our needs right now. Yes, we could stand to have a bigger house, but we have enough for our needs right now. We could have nicer cars, a bigger TV, phones that can do everything, all the toys AJ and Joanna could ever want....but what we have right now is enough for our needs (and then some).

And now that I recognize that, I can see how shallow my interactions with God were back in the day when all I'd do was complain about what I didn't have. Now I've just gotta figure out what else there is to talk about with Him.

One thing for sure is to thank Him that He has _far_ more patience as a parent than I have. And self-control. Dude...if I had to deal with whiny me while being all powerful? Let's just say that there'd be a whole lot more lightning bolts.

AJ's Word of the Day

So AJ likes him some Veggie Tales. He's seen the ones we have enough now that he has names for each of them. Not necessarily _their_ name, but _a_ name. Often it's the name of one of the prominent characters (e.g., "Cue" = Minnesota Cuke). Lately he's been asking for "Be Bo Bah."

Any guesses?

Be Bo Bah = Larry Boy

But before you begin to ponder exactly how "Be Bo" = Larry, I'd like for you to know that "Be" actually equals Larry. "Bo" is Boy. "Bah" is actually Bob. He's actually saying "Larry Boy Bob." "Bob" represents not only Bob the Tomato, but also Larry the Cucumber and Veggie Tales in general.

Rai and Jiri at Lungha.

No, Yoda!

Ok, before you all think that I'm a terrible, horrible person, compare the two pictures below.

Joanna

Joanna's Momma

Joanna looks JUST LIKE her mother (that's me). So anything I say about her, I'm essentially saying about myself too. And we'll deal with the therapy bills later.

Also, please know that I think my child is absolutely beautiful. Not "look, it's a baby" beautiful, but really and truly beautiful. (Now why don't I think _that_ about myself? Nevermind...we'll deal with _my_ therapy bills later too...)

Having said all of that, I also see a striking resemblance to both Yoda and a garden gnome.

Yoda

Gnome

Now, if I'd actually taken the time to Photoshop the pics rather than just Paint, I think the resemblance would have been even more striking (green tinted skin, different backgrounds, better Yoda hair, etc.). But I wanted to post this sometime before she's 30. But I love the Yoda pic, especially in her little Bumbo. It's just like their Jedi Council seats! Heehee! Ooo...I should have added the lightsaber!

Darmok and Jilaad

So there's this Star Trek Next Gen episode where Picard gets kidnapped by this alien race that they're trying for a 2nd "first contact" with. You see, the universal translator can't make heads or tails of this race's language and that led to war or something the first time around.

But the alien leader (we'll call him "Not-Gorn" for reasons that are obvious to those who have seen both this episode and the classic Trek episode with the Gorn - not the Enterprise Gorn, the classic Gorn. I'm still mad at Enterprise for its Gorn) knows that the same thing will happen again unless he can get someone to understand their language. So he kidnaps Picard and puts the two of them into a stressful situation (kinda like with the original Gorn except with no outside force manipulating things...and without the homemade bazooka) where they have to work together against this random energy beast in order to survive. Since stress is apparently the best way to learn a language, of course Picard picks it right up...just before the not-Gorn dies of his energy beast-inflicted wounds.

So their language is metaphorical, and based on their mythology. Now, don't get me started as to how completely absurd it is that this system of language could work in "real life" (it's just entirely too unwieldy), but be that as it may, there are days around here where I feel like I'm Picard in that episode. AJ is the not-Gorn, and the "random energy beast" is played by his emotional state (i.e., toddler meltdowns that could kill us all...or incessant whining that could cause _me_ to meltdown).

Not only am I dealing with trying to decipher poor enunciation...but it's like he's got this whole mythos that he's pulling words or phrases from - a mythos that, while I was probably present for its founding, I have zero knowledge of. So I have to infer from the context a) what the words are, and b) what they mean. Sometimes I can then think back to figure out their etymology. Often not.

There's the "hey you." He got it because VNB says it to him frequently as a greeting. So now when AJ wants something and/or doesn't think he has our complete and undivided attention, it's "Mama, mama, hey you!"

And the "yes sir" (or "yeah sir" as it comes out). This interestingly came from him hearing the negative. Both VNB and I say "no sir" when we correct him. We've very occasionally said that he should say "yes sir" or "yes ma'am" in response to a command or question, but not often enough for it to have possibly sunk in. But occasionally he'll just come up to me and say very distinctly, "yeah sir" over and over again like it's supposed to mean something special to me. All I can do is correct him to say "yes ma'am" (sounds like: "yeah man")...but I have no idea what he's actually trying to communicate.

And then there's the "wa wa wa." Lately he'll start almost all of his sentences off with "Wa wa wa ____ ." I think this is "want" with a couple of extra syllables (and sometimes the last "wa" is "watch").

Someday I'll figure this language out. Then I, too, can say "Darmok and Jilaad at Tenaagra. Shahka, when the walls fell." and know what the heck we're talking about.

Doesn't It Figure

So at the beginning, when Joanna's hands weren't firmly pinned (i.e., swaddled) to her sides at night, she'd keep me up half the night with her slurping on her fingers, and probably didn't sleep all that well herself. But we're approaching the dreaded mega bed transition. AJ will go into a toddler bed and Joanna will go into the crib (and out of the pack 'n play next to our bed). We're also approaching her rolling over (she gets up to about 90°, but then falls back onto her back). I'm not comfortable having her hands pinned when she starts to roll over...and since she often frees herself now anyway, I'm _really_ not comfortable having that swaddling blanket loose around her head when she's not right next to me.

So last night I tried letting her arms go free for at least part of the night. It was definitely helpful to _get_ her to sleep to have her arms pinned (apparently poking yourself in the eye does not promote sleeping. Who knew?), but at the first waking, I tried giving her a pacifier and holding her (loose) hands down until she went to sleep. It was probably like 5 minutes, but in half-asleep time it was an eternity before I finally picked her back up again and bounced for another eternity (i.e., 5 minutes) to get her re-settled. Then when I put her back down, the hand went immediately back into her mouth and I let it stay there (she doesn't suck her thumb, she sucks her middle and ring fingers (and sometimes the pinky too), mostly palm up, but occasionally palm down). Since she has far better fine motor control now, there was far less slurping and she and I were able to get back to sleep. She even managed to _stay_ asleep for almost two hours (I'd told myself that it was back to the swaddling if she woke up before then). So after the next feeding (and we're moving away from nursing in bed since she won't be doing that once she's in her own room), I left her hands free and just put her down. Since I didn't mess with her at the beginning, she got _much_ better sleep and didn't wake again for 3.5 hours! She's been sleeping or at least dozing for the past 2 hours now too!

So the moral of the story, let sleeping babies lie however they want to and you'll get more sleep! These past few weeks that she's been waking every two hours on the dot were probably _my_ fault for keeping her away from those tasty fingers!

You Know Lunch is Over When...

As I sat at the table, eating lunch, doing a puzzle, and waiting for the Comcast guy (this is day 3 of our wait for "same-day emergency service"), I looked up and saw this:



I guess he likes his new booster seat. :)

Chatterbox

Apologies for the quality of this video - we've gotten a new camera since my old one doesn't want to recharge its battery at the moment and we're still learning how best to use it. Plus the lights weren't on because it was supposed to be nap time (hence the multiple layers of swaddling and blankets). But _SOMEONE_ (not pointing any fingers here) didn't want to take her nap and chose to talk to her mama instead. This is also the reason that this unnamed someone will be in the church nursery from now on instead of in Sunday School and worship with her mama and daddy. She's quite the chatterbox, my girl.

Moments with My First Born

So today AJ was watching as I grated some cheese. Inevitably, he asked for a piece of cheese so I cut a hunk off the chunk I was grating. A while later, after I'd finished grating the cheese, he asked for another piece. When I handed him a slice, he started saying "tuh, tuh cheese" and pointing at the counter where I'd been grating. Then it dawned on me. He was telling me he wanted me to "cut the cheese." In approximately 11 years, he'll think that was hilarious.

Apparently AJ is becoming aware of the feelings of others (especially sadness) because lately he'll point out that someone is "saah" when he see tears on TV or elsewhere. Well, we're still working on grammar too because whenever his sister cries, he says, "Don't saah, Baby, don't saah."

I like to kiss all over his cheeks and do it as often as he'll hold still for it. Well, the other night he was sitting on my lap for a few minutes and I was just putting my cheek up to his. He then proceeded to manhandle my head until my lips were on his cheek so that I could kiss it. Any time I stopped or turned away, he would forcibly move my head back into cheek kissing position.

One of his favorite PBS shows right now is "Word World" where all of the characters and things are made up of the letters that spell their word (e.g., the duck is the letters D-U-C-K in the shape of a duck). In the show they frequently "build a word" where they put letters together and after a moment the letters shape themselves into that object. Well he recently got back his foam bath letters and while we were watching TV the other night I saw him pushing the letters together and staring at them intently. I think he was trying to build a word. It's a good thing he doesn't know how to spell yet. We really don't have room for an elephant or whatever else he'd spell.

Cashing In

So back during my junior year in high school ('92-'93), my project won the school science fair. I made an airfoil similar to that used on a P-51D "Mustang" in WWII, stuck it in a small wind tunnel at Vanderbilt University, and measured the coefficients of lift and drag at various angles of attack (it was my dad's idea and he pulled the strings to get me in at Vandy).

Since it won at my school, I got to go on to the Middle Tennessee Science and Engineering Fair. I didn't win like first place there or anything, but I did win three prizes from random groups. The Society of Women Engineers gave me $50 (cash) and a t-shirt (that I still have and wear), NASA gave me a certificate of achievement (which I also still have), and Textron Aerostructures (now "The Aerospace Company," I think) gave me $250 in savings bonds. We checked their value the other day and discovered that they were within a few dollars of reaching their full value. Knowing that it would take another 15 years to reach that value, we decided to cash them in.

It took a couple of trips since they're written out using my maiden name and my parents address (we had to bring our marriage license), but I cashed them in today.

$239.60! $50 of that went to recharge our laundry card (communal facilities that take a card now rather than quarters), and I'll buy this week's groceries with cash tonight...but after that, I'm thinking I should spend frivolously. Or at least buy _something_ for me. I need new running shoes.

Mmmmm...cash burning a hole in my pocket. :)

Through No Fault Of My Own

So today, at approximately 2PM, I put Joanna down for a nap. Why is this important, you ask? For two reasons:

1. Until he was well into solid foods, we never put AJ _DOWN_ for a nap. Very occasionally he'd sleep in his bouncy chair and sometimes I was able to remove the off-brand Boppy from my midsection with him still on top of it and place it someplace other than my lap (which occasionally led to him sliding off the bed, but that's another story), but mostly he had to be attached to me and being held. It continues to amaze me that some babies (like my sweet Jo-Jo) will just fall asleep with little-to-no fuss. And then after falling asleep, will actually allow you to transfer them to someplace other than your arms - like their bed. And then will sleep there for longer than 5 minutes! It's amazing...and a HUGE blessing! My arms feel so empty when I put her down...but at the same time, it feels so freeing! A baby that you can put down! Woohoo!
2. AJ's nap starts at 1 and ends at 3 or whenever after 3 he wakes up.

So I, through no fault of my own, managed most of an hour without "having" to hold a baby (or listen to one whine or scream). What did I do with this blessed time? I baked cookies. How domestic is that? They're even edible! Which is really good since they're meant (mostly) for a friend of mine who just started a second round of chemo last Friday. Well, cookies and a "Lentil Casserole" that I made earlier today.

But back to the point, I have achieved the mythical nap coordination! Babies that not only sleep, but sleep at the same time! It's mommy nirvana!

Odds and Ends

So my local grocery store (Giant) has occasionally been sending out these special coupons that triple coupons up to $.99. The latest round expired today and I had a (rare) opportunity to go to the grocery store sans kids, so we made good use of them. My favorite deal was the Ziplock containers I got. Regular price: $3.50. After two tripled $.75 off coupons, they were $1.25 each. That by itself was a great deal, but then when I scanned them at the check out, the Catalina machine printed out a coupon for $1.50 off your "next" order (as a "thank you" from Ziplock), which made them $.50 each. I'm a little proud of myself. :) If only they had been on sale too. That would have been the ultimate jackpot.

In "good"-ish news, we paid off our other car yesterday! We've been socking away the dough the past few months and had built up a decent "down payment" fund (and by "we," I mean my darling financial whiz of a husband). But then we realized how impossible it would be to sell our current place even for what we bought it for (making the "down payment" fund into the "closing costs" fund)...and given that even refinancing right now would cost us most of that fund...we began looking for other possible uses. The car payment was the clear winner since we have no other consumer debt (this just leaves us with student loans and mortgage - go us!). Adding to our decision was the phone call I had with my division directors and HR contact at work on Tuesday. They just don't have any work for me right now. They hope to really soon, but nothing right now. So they're moving me to "occasional" status which means that instead of being salaried, I only get paid for the hours I work. They'll (theoretically) move me back to salaried once they get work again that will fill my time. So, given less money coming in, even though it took most of our nest egg, we figured it would be a good idea to get rid of a payment if we could. And we could. So we did. And we're staying in our tiny little condo for the foreseeable future. But looking on the bright side, we just paid off our car! Woohoo! :)

And two rants:

Like it wasn't bad enough hearing the stupid commercials and PSA for the "great changeover" to DTV for like a year and a half (believe me, I wish I were exaggerating)...but now they decide to _extend_ the deadline to June?!!! Another FOUR WHOLE MONTHS? Please just shoot me now.

And finally, why can't websites just _tell_ you that your login ID is your email address? I mean seriously. Every single stinking website nowadays wants you to register and while I have the same login info for most, there is _NO_WAY_ for me to remember which websites actually use a login ID, and which use your email address instead (and don't get me started on trying to remember which ones require a number and/or uppercase letter...). I vote that the websites that use your email address change all of their "login ID"s to "email address"es. And state their password requirements next to the password box. It would save everyone a lot of "lost" passwords.

Thank you, and have a nice day!

Leather!

So today is the third anniversary of the day that VNB and I got married! That makes it the "leather" anniversary! Woohoo! ;p

Future Butterfly

I know every mom does it, but I've found myself just staring at this little girl for...well...minutes at a time and wondering what she's going to do and be when she gets older. I wonder who she's going to marry and what she's going to enjoy and if her hair will be curly or straight. I wonder if it's even possible for her to be as sweet and wonderful as her older brother.

And then I stop. Because I don't remember wondering those things about him. Granted, at the time I'd been through like 5 of the 7 major life changes (let's see: moving (3 times in the States and twice between different countries in the course of about 18 months); finish a degree; start/end a job (did both twice in that same 18-ish months); marry; pregnancy and birth of a baby - the only ones I didn't do were a death and a divorce) in just over a year so I was a little overwhelmed with catching up to life. Plus, AJ just didn't sleep. Comparing him to his sister, he _REALLY_ didn't sleep. For months. Partly my fault. Mostly just him.

But back to my point. I was a "little" out of it by the time AJ came along and basically just in survival mode. That doesn't leave much room for day dreams. But I also think it was because I had no idea what to expect, so no idea what to day dream about for him.

With Joanna, I've seen how great her big brother is, I've had a little more time to figure life out again, I'm healing MUCH faster, and I'm getting WAY more sleep. As a result, I have the time and ability to dream dreams for my little girl.

I think it's more than that though. When I look at AJ, I get an overwhelming sense of exuberant joy and bone-deep sweetness. When I look at Joanna, I get an overwhelming sense of possibility. I think it's just intrinsically who she is and who he is. Even right now when all she does is eat, sleep, poop, cry, and burp (and hold her head up a little and follow her mama with her eyes!), she just exudes possibility in a way that AJ never did and still doesn't, despite his obvious intelligence. That's not to say that he's not going to make a mark in this world or that she's not going to be sweet in her own way, just that their natures shine through even before they take their first steps or say their first words.

I think I had this idea that babies are blank slates who are mostly shaped by their environment. I mean, sure, we all have our own unique natural leanings, but I guess I just thought that Joanna would resemble her brother more at this point.

Geez...this blog post has been percolating in my head for a week now and it's still all rambley. Sorry. Hopefully y'all won't think I'm putting down either of my children because I'm not. I'm excited to see what the future holds for both of them and I expect great things of both of them (although my definition of "great" may be different than most)...I'm just in awe of their uniqueness, even when all you can see is their head sticking out of a "baby burrito" (or more romantically, a cocoon enveloping the caterpillar while it metamorphoses into a butterfly - but baby burrito is funnier and quicker to type).

I dunno...maybe that's why her middle name is Hope.

Thankful for a Happy Heart

As AJ's gotten older we've noticed more and more how distinct his personality is, not just from mine and his father's, but from what we'd expect from his environment too. One example is him saying "thank you." He started doing it with no prompting from us (I was just getting to the point of thinking about starting to encourage it). And to be perfectly honest, he said it for several days at least before his pediatrician understood him and said "you're welcome." His own mama and daddy didn't even understand that was what he was saying until someone else pointed it out. Nice.



Anyway, when I was so sick while pregnant, he was amazingly sweet as I would "pray to the porcelain god." Again, without any prompting, he'd come up behind me and hug me or put an arm around my shoulders or pat my back (after he'd try to spit into the toilet himself - he _is_ a boy, after all).



And then when his baby sissy came along, he was again the sweetest big brother imaginable.



But then he broke his leg and we were sure we were in for the worst. Here he was, newly 2 (with all the "joy" the 2s bring), newly de-throned as the only child, mama still can't pick him up, all the grandparents and aunts are back home, and daddy's back at work like normal....and then he breaks his leg (or something).



We were at a friend's birthday party at a gymnastics gym and VNB and AJ were bouncing on the trampoline. They both came down at about the same place at about the same time and VNB got the good bounce while AJ got the hard crash and immediately started crying. When he hadn't stopped for most of an hour and wouldn't put weight on his right leg (despite a complete lack of bruising, swelling, or apparent tenderness in any of his joints), we went to the ER. They took x-rays, didn't see much, but thought they _might_ have seen something just below his right knee, so they said it was broken and put him in a splint cast.



Until they told us it was broken, we were still contemplating the possibility that maybe he'd just jammed it or something and was not "faking" it per se, but just afraid to use it again. Then we realized that he'd lain still on the hospital bed without complaining for most of three hours. I don't think AJ has sat still for three hours cumulatively in his entire life. Seriously. We knew then that there was something wrong.



So for the next two days, AJ continued to prove that there was something wrong by being content to sit still on the couch. Granted, we were watching his favorite DVDs and waiting on him hand and foot (and he was getting a constant flow of Infant's Motrin), but still...he just sat there happily for two days.



The ER referred us to an orthopedist who, between cell phone calls, from his 5-sec glance at the x-rays, decided that the leg wasn't broken, but figured that since AJ still wouldn't put weight on it that we should cast it anyway (the next diagnostic step would be to sedate him and give him an MRI - which might not show anything either). So even though there was _still_ no swelling or bruising, we went ahead and got him casted (he picked blue because that's the only color he'll say without being prompted to repeat you).



It took about a day of him belly crawling for a) us to figure out that casts and pergo don't do well together without some traction, and b) him to figure out his new balance and start walking again.



There have been a few spills (although for the most part he immediately picks himself up and tries again at whatever he was attempting), and a few tears (he _is_ 2, after all), but mostly he's just gone with the flow and done it with a happy heart.



I can't tell you how humbling that is for me as a parent. I mean, how could we possibly have taught him that in the past two years? I can't see how, so I can only attribute it to God's perfect design of my little boy. My sweet, loving, happy little boy.

Welcome to Our World

So on December 23rd at approximately 11:39 PM, Joanna Hope Jones explosively entered our world! She weighed 6 lbs. 15.8 oz, and was 19.5 inches long (so two ounces more than her brother, but an inch shorter). We got to bring her (and her tired and sore mommy) home from the hospital on Christmas morning! Talk about a Christmas present! :)

The contractions started on Monday the 22nd around 6 PM. They weren't terribly regular, but they were painful, so we fully expected to be making a trip to the hospital sometime that night or early the next day, especially when the contractions kept going through the night (false labor would normally stop with a change in position). I was able to get _some_ sleep, but not a whole lot. I already had an appointment scheduled, so we dropped AJ off with a friend for the day and went to get checked out. I was 3cm dilated, ~70% effaced, and the baby was at about -2 station - so not exactly ready to go, but progress from the week before. They sent us home with the expectation that they'd be seeing us again later that day.

We went over to the local mall for a little walking. After a lap on each level, my contractions were around 4 minutes apart and lasting almost a minute each (we were told to call when they were 5 min apart and 1 min duration for at least an hour). So we went home for a quick nap, expecting to go to the hospital very shortly thereafter.

By the time we got home, the contractions had spaced out to 8-10 minutes, and eventually I was able to sleep for at least 45 minutes! So I took a walk, trying to get them to speed up again. But it was like 20 below and getting dark, so we went to another mall for more walking. Keep in mind that by the time we got to this second mall, I'd been having painful contractions for 24 hours. As I was quickly nearing "the wall," we began attempting to call the midwives to see if what they would recommend. Unfortunately, their phone system hadn't been switched for the night, so I couldn't get the after-hours number. Fortunately, we've got friends who use this same practice. Unfortunately, they were in Buffalo. But thanks to the glory of cell phones, we were eventually able to get in touch with them and get the after-hours number.

VNB dropped me by a door (of the second mall) and went to park while I walked toward the food court. It's one of those "Mills" malls, so it's big, but I was only part of a "neighborhood" away from the food court when VNB dropped me off. Still, by the time I'd reached the food court, I couldn't go any further (mostly my hips just couldn't take any more, but I was also hardly able to stand during the contractions). VNB managed to get a hold of the midwives, and they agreed that I could come into get checked, but couldn't promise that they would keep me, and wouldn't agree to induce me (they were _really_ busy). So we headed out to the hospital.

By the time I got to the car, contractions were fast and furious (~3 min apart). The minute I sat down in the car, the contractions spaced out again. But "the wall" had been reached. I'd been in labor for over 24 hours at that point, and the end seemed no closer than before.

We got to the hospital and they started checking us in around 8. The midwife checked me around 8:30-ish and I was at 4 cm, ~70%, and the baby was at -1 station. That was enough progress that she was willing to keep me, which was a good thing because I think I would have completely lost it emotionally if they'd sent us home. We got settled and the contractions continued and got steadily more painful.

A little before 11, they had to hook me back up to the monitors for a few minutes, so I got back on the bed. The contractions were more manageable when I was on my side, so I spent most of the time that way. While I was hooked up, the midwife checked me again. Since the time between 4 cm and baby had been by far the longest part of labor with AJ, we weren't expecting much. VNB planned on taking a nap if he could unless I was up to 7 or 8 cm.

I was at 7 or 8 cm, much to everyone's surprise. The midwife warned me that those last couple of centimeters usually take a while and are relatively painful, but that I was doing a great job and was handling things just fine. She walked out the door probably around 11. The very next contraction, I felt an overwhelming urge to push.

Knowing that I'd _just_ measured at 7-8, I thought maybe it was a fluke, so I didn't say anything. But I felt it again the next time and even though it seemed crazy, I said the only word I could manage - "push." That got everyone's attention. The labor and delivery nurse took a minute to assess the situation, but quickly realized I meant it and yelled out the door for someone to get the midwife. While we were waiting for the midwife, they told me not to push, but there was very little I could do to stop it.

The midwife came back in and got ready to check me again, but I couldn't get myself from my side to my back so that she could. They kept trying to get me _not_ to push, but I couldn't _not_ push, so she gave up on checking me and switched to "lets have a baby" mode. About that time, my water finally broke. It was a good thing too, because within a push or two after they'd dropped the bed and gotten me to finally roll over, VNB said something I didn't expect to hear for a long while yet - "they've got a full head of hair!" About that same time, the L&D nurse said that I was crowning. I hardly believed them since it had taken 40 of the 45 minutes of pushing with AJ to get him to that point.

Then, a couple of pushes later, little Joanna gave the nurses another surprise by coming out, head, shoulders, and most of the amniotic fluid in one, explosive burst. They were laughing afterward about wishing they'd worn shoe covers.

So with minimal tearing, and a lot of thankfulness that they kept me at the hospital when we came in, Joanna Hope was born at 11:39 PM. Just in time for her mama to get her Christmas wish - not to be in labor on Christmas or Christmas Eve. :)

Big brother AJ met her the next morning and did great with her. In fact, he only cried when VNB took her _away_ from him.

And other than last night's traditional late night Mylecon run, she's been doing great since we came home Christmas morning. Like her brother before her, she's an expert nurser, and her mama is doing surprisingly well. I mean, I still hurt and all, but the healing process has been _much_ faster than with AJ already.

So that's her story! I can't explain how relieved I am to not be pregnant anymore. With AJ, I had severe indigestion which ended the moment he exited my body. This time around it was the nausea that blessedly left the moment Joanna came out. Brushing my teeth doesn't make me gag anymore! Woohoo!

I'll post more pics one of these days. In the meantime, find VNB's facebook account. He's got pics there.

Two From Galilee

For those of you who didn't get to see our musical this past weekend, here're a few highlights of what you missed. It's almost 10 minutes long, so be prepared. You get to see parts of VNB's big number (he's the one in the purple with the sword) about halfway through.

I'm the really fat one.

Can't Sleep

So yet again, I can't get to sleep to save my life. Dunno what the problem is, but I'm sure I'll be sorry for it tomorrow. I even waited to go to bed this time until I was nodding a bit on the couch. But the second I hit those sheets, I'm wide awake.

So you get an update. We finally picked out baby names today, I think. VNB is so sure it's a girl that he left the boy name completely up to me. And since AJ's middle name was determined at the beginning to be his middle name (and his father's and grandfather's), he only picked the first name for a girl and I picked the middle name.

So except for the house that got hit by a "stuff bomb" over the weekend, I think we're pretty much ready to go. The stuff bomb was a direct result of re-arranging our bedroom to make room for the pack 'n' play for the baby to sleep in until we figure out how to make us all fit better. We got most of the major furniture back in Friday night when we re-arranged, but all the random stuff from all over the room is still mostly all over the rest of our house right now. I'll definitely finish getting that cleaned up tomorrow though (well, the stuff I can actually lift) since we're supposed to go see a show with my aunt and will have a babysitter over. It's really only clutter, toys, and a load of dishes at this point, but it seems like so much more since we've got such a small space.

The remaining things on my list of "things to do before the baby gets here" mostly pertain to Christmas presents. And I'm pretty sure that our family would forgive us if we were a little late on the presents this year. Something about providing them with a second grandchild/niece or nephew...that should be enough for one Christmas, imo.

Anyway, the musical went well. VNB did a great job, and I managed to waddle my way through.

But we're definitely in the home stretch with this little one. So very different from those last few weeks with AJ when we were trying to get him to turn over by every means possible. I can see the attraction to planned inductions and cesareans since this waiting is so hard to do. But at the same time, it's far healthier for the baby to come whenever s/he is ready...I just wish I knew whether or not I need to get a "baby's first Christmas" ornament. :)

My Little Helper

So one of the first things I did during this horrific pregnancy was teach AJ to pick things up for me. It took a few months, but I can pretty reliably say "AJ, would you pick that up for Mama, please?" and have him actually do it in a relatively timely fashion. He's also started enjoying putting things in the trash...and only occasionally digs things _out_ of the trash.

Anyway, a few weeks ago he did something that completely shocked the socks off of me. I was folding laundry and had left a pile of clothes for the baby on the coffee table for sorting into types and sizes. It had been there a couple of days when it got knocked off into the floor sometime that I wasn't in the room. That didn't surprise me at all (well, I was a _little_ surprised that it took a couple of days). What surprised me was that as I was walking into the room, without saying anything about it or even looking upset about it, AJ started picking up the clothes and putting them in a pile on the table. And he kept going until all of the clothes were picked up. No one asked him to, he just did it. I think I nearly cried.

Then just now, I was finishing up the water in a water bottle in order to keep the vultures from backwashing into it (the vultures in this case would be AJ). When I finished, he fussed a tiny bit that he hadn't gotten any, then took the bottle, I assumed to play with it. He then proceeded to the kitchen where I heard a cabinet open and close. A minute later, he was back in the living room with me, but without the bottle. It was then I realized that he'd thrown the bottle away for me. Now, I fully expect to have to fish it out of the trash to put it in the recycling...but such independence! Such understanding of the situation! Such a continuation of the Turner and Jones tradition of just doing what needs to be done without having to be told exactly what to do!

I was (am) so proud of him! As he came back into the room, I asked him if he'd thrown the bottle away and he nodded and smiled. I grabbed him and hugged him and told him what a good boy he is, what a good helper he is!

It's amazing to me to see him grow so much. I remember how little he used to be - the lump of not sleepingness he used to be. He's so creative in his play (anything can become either a phone or a hat, and many things that one would never anticipate can become train tracks). And when he's play talking on the phone, he actually has pretend conversations. When he drops practically anything, but especially one of his trains, he picks it up, looks it in the "face," and asks if it's alright. He even "reads" books to himself sometimes.

I'm just amazed by this little person who gestated inside of me for close to 9 months. It's hard to imagine that lightning could strike twice to give us another one as amazing...but at the same time, it's hard to imagine that this new little one could be anything but amazing him or herself.

But here's hoping that s/he is a better sleeper. :)

Lost and Found

So Tuesday night we had dress rehearsal for our musical. Just in case we had to make a speedy exit from the stage due to the baby, I had everything in my basket that I was going to need to leave quickly - a towel to clean up any mess on-stage, antacids (those are a necessity anywhere I go, hospital or not), snacks, my glasses, my cell phone, and my wallet.

When we were packing up to go home, I was transferring all of my necessities back to my purse so that I could leave the basket at church. That was the last time I remember seeing my wallet.

There wasn't any cash in it, but there were credit cards, my drivers license, insurance cards for me and AJ (which the hospital will want to see), and over $90 in gift cards! It's really hard to buy Christmas presents when you have no credit cards or gift cards. And while I had my insurance ID number, the hospital says that they want a copy of the card. You'd hope they'd be as reasonable as possible with a woman in labor, but you never know.

Since the last time I remembered seeing it was in my basket at church, I was _really_ hoping it was still there. Well, at last night's dress rehearsal, I discovered that it wasn't. Do you know how hard it is to admit to your husband that not only have you lost your entire wallet, but you did it two days ago and didn't say anything until now because you were hoping it wasn't really lost? Amazingly (and thankfully), he didn't freak out too much. I looked some more when we got home last night and had plans to ask AJ this morning since he likes to take things out of my purse (although usually when he takes my wallet, every single thing in it gets spread all over the place, so it's a "little" hard to miss). I asked him if he knew what Mama's wallet was when he woke up and the answer I got was "Tha?" (i.e., Thomas? Meaning that he wanted to watch Thomas.). No help there. So I looked (and prayed) a little more.

A day or two ago, one of our multitude of remotes had managed to fall, not just between the couch and an end table (in a nearly unreachable spot), but actually slid _under_ the end table, so I hoped against hope that maybe my wallet had fallen under there too. I'd checked multiple times under the couch, so I focused my search on the end table, but to get to the end table, I had to move the couch a little (it's very light and I didn't lift it, I just slid it across our Pergo, so don't yell at me). I cleaned out the random detrius that was living under the end table, but no wallet. As I lay there on the floor, disappointed, I turned my head the other way trying not to cry...and there it was. Under the couch I'd checked under multiple times already.

Al hamdoolillah!

Dreaming for Two

So I've never been much of a dreamer in the sense that I never used to remember my dreams after I woke up. It was such that prior to just before I got married, I could remember remembering a total of about five dreams in my life, three of which occurred just before I came back from overseas. In fact, when I then started vividly dreaming on a semi-regular basis shortly thereafter, every dream, no matter how innocuous, seemed like a nightmare to me because they were so unusual.

Eventually I got more used to them and they stopped occurring quite so frequently, so they didn't freak me out as much. Anyway, one of the side-effects of pregnancy is vivid dreams. And let me tell you, I've had some wham-dingers recently. Very detailed, always involving real people and elaborate situations.

Two nights ago, I dreamed that some malevolent political force was taking over America and in the process causing all sorts of natural disasters (many having to do with water or flooding - so either Freud is giggling, or I've got "breaking waters" on my brain). In the process of trying to escape from the political situation, I ended up being part of a little band of people (the "freedom fighters" in whatever movie/TV script you want to emulate, but before they had organized and actually fought back). Oddly, I wasn't at all one of their leaders, I just ended up with their group (and I should mention that all of this apparently took place on University of Maryland's campus - at least, that's where my brain said it was, but the scenery didn't really match any of MD's campus - you know how that goes). Anyway, I was just as pregnant as I am now (at least at the very end), but somehow I managed to run and climb to get away from the floods and giant crashing waves. And it ended with me finding VNB (also with the freedom fighters). I didn't even know throughout the dream that I was looking for him, but when I found him, I knew I was safe and everything was going to be just fine.

Sweet, huh? Man of my dreams apparently (not that I wouldn't have said that before now, it's just both figuratively _and_ literally true now).

Making VNB's Day

So VNB and I have a standing "feud" over the color that Christmas tree lights should be. I'm an all white girl, he's a multi-colored guy. For the past few years, as we've been learning each others' Christmas preferences and traditions (like you actually put small gifts _in_ the stockings (for me) and there's a train around the bottom of the tree (for him)), I've always won for the light color, primarily because a) I was the one that put them up (and/or purchased the replacement strands), and b) we had _far_ more white lights than we had colored.

But my white light strands have been dying slowly, but surely. Our plan was to replace each strand with LED strands as they died. That way we wouldn't have to make a huge investment in the expensive lights any one year, but we've eventually only have LED lights. But by the time we got lights on our tree last year, all of the stores were completely out of anything but outdoor LED nets. So, last year we made do with a bunch of half-working strands, then threw out anything that wasn't working completely when we put them away. This year we made it to the store a _little_ sooner (or they just had more this year), but they still didn't have the type of lights I would have preferred (small, white, non-faceted).

But beggars can't be choosers, so I did the best I could - large, faceted, white indoor-outdoor bulbs. I figured I'd put those on the inside of the tree and the little strands on the outside. Plus, with the larger bulbs, we wouldn't need as many lights so I could buy fewer strands. And my plan was working like a charm until I plugged in the first strand of the regular bulbs. That's when I made my discovery - LED "white" is a very different shade of white from that of regular bulb "white." And while shades of multi-colored lights wouldn't matter, shades of only white lights would look HORRIBLE.

So, as VNB will discover when he gets home from our dress rehearsal tonight, this year we have a compromise tree - five strands of large white LED bulbs, and two strands of small colored LED bulbs (that we bought last year for some reason I can't for the life of me remember). We could stand to get a few more of the colored strands to fill it out better, but it'll do for now.

Now I just have to find our garland and see if it works at all with colored lights. Unfortunately, I think it's in the china cabinet which currently has the dining room table pushed up against it (with all the chairs on top) to make room for the tree. The joys of a tiny house. And lack of forethought.

Measuring Small...Again...Some More...

So with AJ, I measured consistently small for the last few months (by "measuring small" I mean that they measure the "fundal height" of my uterus (from my pelvic bone to the top of my uterus) while I'm lying on a table. The measurement is supposed to roughly equal (in cm.) the number of weeks gestation I am). With him, it was only a cm or two, it was consistent, and it was because he was breech. Apparently breech babies take up less space. This time around, when I've measured small (which has happened randomly throughout the pregnancy), I've measured _WAY_ small. They sent me for a sonogram to check on things a couple of months back and Baby was fine, just 35th percentile for weight/size. That's small, but not abnormally so. And I'm all for birthing small babies. I even had an above average amount of amniotic fluid.

Well, I'm just over 38 weeks today and at my appointment, I measured 29 cm.!!!! That definitely concerned the midwife some (although Baby's moving around plenty (still trying to escape through my belly button) and the heartbeat was strong), so she sent me for another sonogram. Baby still measures fine (and is _DEFINITELY_ head down this time!!!! Woohoo!!!!), and my fluid is on the low side of normal, but still well within the normal range.

So apparently this baby is going to be able to fit easily into small spaces. Maybe s/he will be the next Houdini. It's interesting though because my lung capacity doesn't seem affected, my bladder doesn't seem overly affected, and the indigestion has actually gotten better lately. So somehow, this little one has managed to squish my organs less, grow normally, and _still_ seem small from the outside.

Big things come in small packages?

And for those of you who want these types of details, ~1cm, 50%, and -2. If you don't know what those numbers mean, you probably don't _want_ to know.

Our hope for the week is that baby waits until at least Sunday night. It's not _that_ big a deal for me to miss the musical (performances are Saturday and Sunday at 6 - Saturday's a dinner theater though, so dinner starts at 6 and costs $10 - see here for details), but VNB is one of the principal characters and would be very torn/distracted if I were in labor during the show. Even if it were only early labor. And it would be hard for him to be gone from one of the dress rehearsals this week...so it'd really just be best to wait till next week. That's closer to the due date anyway.